Friday, November 28, 2014

Black Friday Special: Eulogy for RadioShack

Here's an inside view of RadioShack and its misdeeds, from a former employee.  Main quote from the article:
This is a consumer technology business that is built to work perfectly in the year 1975.   ....   This company needed to become something radically different a decade ago. I just don't think it knows how to be anything else.
Wow, what a monumental multi-decade screw-up.  Here's a brief history of the corporation and its attempts at restructuring into profitability over at Wikipedia.  Talk about mis-management and buzzword bingo, it's as if they did every business school dance while carefully avoiding the main issue of selling profitable items that customers want.  And while they've often skirted with financial problems, this really is looking like TheEnd for RadioShack.

RadioShack has always had a slightly greezy feel to it, but on the whole it has always been there when I needed a roll of solder or some cable connector. Granted, these days there's a better selection of better quality parts on the internet, but that implies a shipping delay.  When I'm in mid-project, it's been nice to know that the RadioShack around the corner likely would have that one little part I needed to wrap the job up the same day.  I'm going to miss them.

Look on the bright side: maybe a company that knows decent management can pick up the bones of RadioShack for little to nothing, then re-build the company into something useful and profitable again.  The current crop of management sure hasn't done the job.  In the meantime, I'll be watching to scoop up some gear for cheap at the Terminal Sale.  (cue the circling vultures)

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